LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
Yes, but slides fax poorly in their normal form. A slide built for a screen is wide, visual, and low on words, which is the opposite of what fax handles well. Convert to a handout layout with larger text and plain charts before sending, or fax only the key slides.
| Slide element | On a fax | Better choice |
|---|---|---|
| Large headline, few words | Readable, but wastes most of the page | Add a short paragraph under the headline in the handout |
| Colour charts and photos | Grey, low contrast, detail lost | Simplify to black-and-white bars with labelled values |
| Small footer text and sources | Often illegible | Move sources to a notes page in larger type |
| Animations and builds | Do not exist on paper | Use the final state of each slide only |
| Speaker notes | Not sent unless you print them | Print notes pages if the recipient needs the spoken detail |
Slides are designed to support a speaker, not to stand alone. Each slide holds a headline and a few fragments, and the real content lives in what the speaker says. Faxed without that voice, the deck reads as a set of slogans with gaps between them. Add the physical limits: slides are wide, while fax pages are portrait, so each slide either shrinks to fit or gets cropped. Dark backgrounds, a favourite on screens, print as heavy grey that eats toner and buries white text. Thin chart lines and small labels, crisp on a projector, blur into guesswork at fax resolution.
None of this means you cannot fax a deck. It means you should fax a version made for paper, not the deck you present from. Think of it as a handout, not a recording of the talk. The handout can carry the same argument in fuller sentences, with charts redrawn simply and sources listed plainly.
Most presentation programs offer a handout or notes-page print layout. Start there, then edit with paper in mind. First, switch dark slides to a light background with black text. Second, enlarge any text below about 14 points in the handout, since faxing shrinks effective readability further. Third, replace each complex chart with a simplified version: fewer series, direct labels on the bars instead of a legend, and the key numbers written out in a sentence beneath. Fourth, add a one-page overview at the front stating the decision or point of the deck, so a reader who skims still gets the message. Fifth, number the pages and add a footer with the deck title and date, so loose fax pages can be reassembled in order.
Check the handout in print preview before sending, page by page. Look for slides where the headline is orphaned, where a chart label vanished, or where a table split awkwardly. Those are the pages that will confuse a fax reader most, and they are easy to fix at this stage: shorten the headline, enlarge the chart, or move the table to its own page.
Often the recipient does not need the whole deck. A committee may need the recommendation slide, the budget slide, and the timeline, not the thirty slides of background. Faxing a short, chosen set respects the recipient's time and reduces the chance of a transmission fault partway through a long job. Say so on the cover note: "Key slides only: recommendation, budget, and timeline. Full deck available on request." That sentence prevents the recipient from assuming pages are missing and chasing a resend you never intended.
If the recipient can receive a file, offer the original deck as well, and label the fax as the paper record copy. The file preserves colour, animation notes, and embedded links, while the fax provides a dated, confirmed paper trail. For recipients who only accept fax, the handout version is the whole message, so spend the extra time on it. In the US and Canada alike, fax remains a fallback for offices, clinics, and government desks that still file on paper, which is why a clean handout still earns its keep.
Through LetterAgent, fax is available in testing for US and Canadian numbers, with a per-fax quote and a page count verified before you approve the total. A handout conversion usually cuts the page count too, since notes pages replace many sparse slides, so check the quoted count against your handout before approving. Keep a copy of the handout you sent, with the confirmation page, in case the recipient questions a figure later.
Ready to fax it? Fax with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is sent.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
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